May 1
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Featured Event
© Dmitry Pichugin/Shutterstock.com
The body of British mountaineer George Mallory was found on Mount Everest, some 75 years after he and Andrew Irvine disappeared while climbing the mountain. The discovery was expected to determine, once and for all, whether Mallory and Irvine had been the first people to summit the peak. Instead, it raised even more questions. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital photo no. 3a47545)
Thought to have been born this day in 1852 near Princeton, Missouri, Martha Jane Cannary—better known as Calamity Jane—was a legendary frontierswoman whose legend has obscured many of the facts about her life in the American West, particularly her time in the gold rush town of Deadwood.
Famous Birthdays
More on May 1
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2004
The European Union was enlarged to include the new member states of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. [How the EU has expanded over time.]
© Focus on Sport/Getty Images
1991
Rickey Henderson stole the 939th base of his career, surpassing Lou Brock’s Major League Baseball record. [Test your knowledge of baseball.]
© John Penney/Dreamstime.com
1971
Amtrak began service in the United States. It had been established by Congress in 1970 to take control of passenger train service from the country’s private rail companies.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1961
The first major airplane hijacking within the United States occurred when a man forced a commercial airliner en route from Miami to Key West, Florida, to detour to Cuba.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
1960
While on a reconnaissance flight deep inside the Soviet Union, a U.S. U-2 plane was shot down and its pilot—Francis Gary Powers, who worked for the CIA—was taken prisoner. The resulting confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the collapse of a diplomatic summit and an escalation of Cold War tensions. [Read about 10 famous names in the espionage game.]
Courtesy of RKO Radio Pictures, a division of RKO General; photograph from the Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive, New York
1941
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, considered by many critics to be the greatest film ever made, premiered in New York City. [Take our film buff quiz.]
Kim Steele/Getty Images
1931
The Empire State Building in New York City officially opened. For four decades it was the tallest building in the world, and it remains a U.S. landmark. [Learn how the construction of the Empire State Building helped sustain New York’s economy during the Great Depression.]
© Holcy—iStock/Getty Images
1924
Iodized salt first went on sale in the United States, available at grocery stores in Michigan. The state was then part of a region known as “the goitre belt,” a reference to enlargement of the thyroid gland due to iodine deficiency. [Test your knowledge of human health.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; National Photo Company Collection (dig. id. npcc 13673)
1909
Kate Smith, known as the “first lady of radio,” was born in Greenville, Virginia. [How much do you know about singers and musicians?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-08434)
1898
The U.S. Navy defeated the Spanish Pacific fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay, resulting in the fall of the Philippines and contributing to the final U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War. [Test your knowledge of warfare.]
Tass/Sovfoto
1889
May Day was first observed as a labor holiday, designated as such by the International Socialist Congress. [What’s the difference between May Day and Labor Day?]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1866
A white mob in Memphis, Tennessee, began a three-day attack on Black residents, 46 of whom were killed. The racially motivated violence helped to win passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which ensured equal protection for formerly enslaved Black Americans who had gained their freedom after the Civil War.
© Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
1851
The Great Exhibition of 1851 opened in London in the Crystal Palace, a giant glass-and-iron exhibition hall designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. [Find out how the Great Exhibition gave rise to the modern world’s fair.]
From Account of the Celebration of the Jubilee of Uniform Inland Penny Postage printed for the Jubilee Celebration Committee - General Post Office, 1891
1840
The world’s first postage stamp was released in England; it was created by Sir Rowland Hill and became known as the Penny Black.